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Book Reviews

Why you should read the two Israeli novels on the New York Times list of 100 notable books of 2020

By Liam Hoare
 Two Israeli novels — The Memory Monster by Yishai Sarid and The Tunnel by A.B. Yehoshua — made... Read more > February 2021

Book Review | Since 1948: Israeli Literature in the Making

By Liam Hoare
 In 2013, the New York-based Israeli novelist Rudy Namdar published The Ruined House. Both upon its initial Hebrew... Read more > December 2020

Book Review | The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace

By Alex Ryvchin
 There is perhaps no aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that is subject to greater distortion than the so-called... Read more > June 2020

From Gil Troy to Susie Linfeld: Fathom writers share their favourite films and books about Israel (Week 8)

By Fathom Editors
 Each fortnight Fathom writers have been recommending Israel-related books, films or podcasts to help our readers through the lockdown. This... Read more > June 2020

Book Review | Arafat and Abbas: Portraits of Leadership in a State Postponed

By Khinvraj Jangid
 The Palestinian national movement has been in disarray for a long time. The failings of its political leadership... Read more > June 2020

From Matti Friedman to Einat Wilf: Fathom writers share their favourite films and books about Israel (Week 7)

By Fathom Editors
 Each fortnight Fathom writers have been recommending Israel-related books, films or podcasts to help our readers through the lockdown. This... Read more > May 2020

Book Review | Your Sons Are at Your Service: Tunisia's Missionaries of Jihad

By Kyle Orton
 Early in his new book, Your Sons Are At Your Service: Tunisia’s Missionaries of Jihad, The Washington Institute’s... Read more > May 2020

Book Review | Paradigm Lost: From Two-State Solution to One-State Reality

By Yisrael Medad
 This slim volume traces Ian Lustick's thinking on why the two-state solution, which he terms the TSS, has... Read more > May 2020

BICOM Staffers Book and Film Lockdown Recommendations (Week 6)

By BICOM
 Each week Fathom writers have been recommending Israel-related books, films or podcasts to help our readers through the lockdown. This... Read more > May 2020

From Eve Garrard to Dave Rich: Fathom writers share their favourite books and films about Israel (Week 4)

By Fathom Editors
 Each week Fathom writers will recommend five Israel-related books, films or podcasts to help our readers through the... Read more > April 2020

Book Review | The Making of the Israeli Far-Right: Abba Ahimeir and Zionist Ideology

By Donna Robinson Divine
 It is hard to imagine a more fitting time for a study of Abba Ahimeir, not only because... Read more > April 2020

From Stephen De Wijze to Matthew Levitt, Fathom writers share their favourite books and films (Week 3)

By Fathom Editors
 Each week Fathom writers will recommend five Israel-related books, films or podcasts to help our readers through the... Read more > April 2020

Book Review | Israel’s Jewish Identity Crisis: State and Politics in the Middle East

By Michael Wegier
 Yadgar’s book was born out of a difficulty he found while teaching at Berkeley of recommending reading that... Read more > April 2020

From Jo-Ann Mort to Donna Robinson Divine: Fathom writers share their favourite books and films (Week 2)

By Fathom Editors
 Each week Fathom writers will recommend five Israel-related books, films or podcasts to help our readers through the... Read more > April 2020

Book Review | Be Strong and of Good Courage: How Israel’s Most Important Leaders Shaped Its Destiny

By David Rodman
 Israel faces a fateful decision. What should be the final status of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria... Read more > March 2020

From Hamutal Gouri to Andrei Markovits: Fathom writers share their favourite books and films about Israel (Week 1)

By Fathom Editors
 Each week Fathom writers will recommend five Israel-related books, films or podcasts to help our readers through the... Read more > March 2020

Book Review | Erdogan’s Empire: Turkey and the Politics of the Middle East

By Simon Waldman
 Soner Cagaptay is the director of the Turkish Research Programme at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy... Read more > March 2020

Book Review | Antisemitism and the Labour Party

By Sarah Brown
 Antisemitism and the Labour Party is an anthology of reissued articles and essays which sets out to provide... Read more > March 2020

Book Review | The Kurds of Northern Syria: Governance, Diversity and Conflicts

By Paul Iddon
 Following the infamous, and seemingly unstoppable, rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) and its bloody takeover of large... Read more > February 2020

Book Review | We Stand Divided: The Rift Between American Jews and Israel

By William Kolbrener
 Daniel Gordis’s We Stand Divided is the latest book on the growing rift between American Jews and Israelis.... Read more > January 2020

Book Review | After ISIS: America, Iran and the Struggle for the Middle East

By Brandon Marlon
 We’ve encountered the toponyms repeatedly in the headlines: Sinjar. Raqqa. Kirkuk. Kobane. Baghuz. But we’ve done so from... Read more > December 2019

Book Review | Doves Among Hawks: Struggles of the Israeli Peace Movements

By John Lyndon
 Plays tend to have three acts. In his excellent and very timely ‘Doves Among Hawks: Struggles of the... Read more > December 2019

Book Review | Israel Denial: Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism & the Faculty Campaign Against the Jewish State

By Eve Garrard
 This is a horrifying book. Not because it's a bad book – on the contrary, Cary Nelson has... Read more > November 2019

Book Review | The Impact of Zionism and Israel on Anglo-Jewry’s Identity 1948-1982: Caught Somewhere Between Zion and Galut

By Azriel Bermant
 Jack Omer-Jackaman’s book could not be more timely given the challenge facing Diaspora Jewry today, with heightened concerns... Read more > November 2019

Book Review | Bad News for Labour: Antisemitism, The Party & Public Belief

By Sarah Brown
 Bad News for Labour: Antisemitism, The Party & Public Belief sets out to reveal ‘the reality behind the... Read more > November 2019

Book Review | Legacy of Empire: Britain, Zionism and the Creation of Israel

By Bruce Maddy-Weitzman
 A better title for this book would have been Original Sin: Britain’s Embrace of the Zionist Movement. In... Read more > October 2019

Book review | Erdogan Rising: The Battle for the Soul of Turkey

By Michael Sercan Daventry
 When the US announced that it was pulling out of northeast Syria and Turkish forces began pouring in,... Read more > October 2019

Book Review | Behind the Mask: The Antisemitic Nature of BDS Exposed

By Cary Nelson
 ‘The world would be soooo much better without jews man.’ This post from a social media account appears... Read more > October 2019

Book Review | Bad News for Labour: Antisemitism, the Party and Public Belief

By Stan Crooke
 This review first appeared in the British socialist newspaper Solidarity. In February of this year, Chris Williamson, Labour... Read more > October 2019

Book Review | A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism

By Izabella Tabarovsky
 One of the best-known antisemitic slogans of the August 2017 ‘Unite the Right’ white supremacist rally in Charlottesville,... Read more > October 2019

Book Review | West Germany and Israel: Foreign Relations, Domestic Politics, and the Cold War, 1965-1974

By Norman J.W. Goda
 Acknowledging German guilt for the Holocaust, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer helped initiate in the early 1950s a relationship with... Read more > July 2019

Book Review | The Great Betrayal: How America abandoned the Kurds and lost the Middle East

By Paul Iddon
 The thesis of David E. Philips’ book The Great Betrayal: How America Abandoned The Kurds And Lost The... Read more > June 2019

Book Review | Understanding Israel: political, societal and security challenges

By Jacob Eriksson
 Israel represents a collection of seeming contradictions. Though Theodor Herzl’s vision was a thoroughly secular one and the... Read more > June 2019

In His Novels, And His Columns, Sayed Kashua Examines His Divided Self

By Liam Hoare
 ‘I wanted to say to my wife that this is really the end, it’s finished,’ the Arab-Israeli writer... Read more > May 2019

Book Review | Israel's Long War with Hezbollah: Military Innovation and Adaption Under Fire

By Rob Pinfold
 The old adage that ‘generals are always prepared to fight the last war’ encapsulates the on-going exchange of... Read more > April 2019

Anziska's 'Preventing Palestine': An Exchange (1) Joel Singer's Review

By Joel Singer
 Joel Singer, a veteran Israeli peace negotiator, critically reviews Seth Anziska’s book, Preventing Palestine: A Political History from... Read more > February 2019

Anziska's 'Preventing Palestine': An Exchange (2) Seth Anziska Replies to Singer

By Seth Anziska
 Seth Anziska replies to Oslo negotiator Joel Singers’s critical review of his book Preventing Palestine: A Political History... Read more > February 2019

Book Review | Sinjar: 14 Days that Saved the Yazidis from Islamic State

By Paul Iddon
 Download a PDF version here. Susan Shand’s book is a moving account of the Islamic State’s (ISIS) genocide... Read more > January 2019

Fathom Review 2016

By Fathom Editors
 Preface by Tim Marshall With the kaleidoscope still being shaken, in this age of uncertainty, Fathom’s role is... Read more > Winter 2016

Book Review | Self-Determination, Statehood and the Law of Negotiation: The Case of Palestine

By John Strawson
 Robert Barnidge’s important book seeks to persuade us to view the Palestinian-Israeli conflict through the prism of what... Read more > December 2018

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Voice of the Week

Our Voice of the Fortnight is Israeli President Isaac Herzog presenting his compromise proposal on judicial reform to the Israeli people on 16 March 2023.

Image of the Week

Minister of Defence Yoav Galant and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi seen during a tour near the border with Lebanon on 16 March 2023, following the detonation of an explosive device at the Megiddo junction, northern Israel. Photo by David Cohen/Flash90

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